Fillmore can't hold 21-0 lead, falls to 0-7

Energized by a heads-up play that resulted in a touchdown, Fillmore jumped out to a big lead early against visiting Maranatha on Friday night. The Flashes looked like they would ride the momentum to their first win of the season.

However, Maranatha got took over the game from the second quarter on, scoring 40 unanswered points for a40-21 win.

“It was a good game,” Fillmore head coach Corey Cole said. “Our offense was going pretty good in the first half; we just have to find a way to carry it into the second half in the future.”

Fillmore (0-7) forced Maranatha to punt on its first drive, with the ball traveling past the Fillmore 20-yard line and Maranatha surrounding it. The ball, however, went off one of the Maranatha players and while Maranatha assumed the play was over, Ricky Holladay alertly picked up the ball at the Fillmore 14 and raced to the end zone for an 86-yard punt return for a touchdown.

The Flashes struck again when quarterback Jake Saviers hit Paget Ecklund for a 24-yard touchdown pass. Fillmore again drove for the end zone as the first quarter expired. Four seconds into the second quarter, Bryce Nunez finished off a nine-play, 66-yard drive with a 1-yard touchdown run.

Trailing 21-0, Maranatha (5-3) needed just two plays and 47 seconds to conjure a response, as Kwon Peterson found Jacob Moreno on a 35-yard screen pass for a touchdown.

Later in the quarter, Peterson found Sumner Ortlund for a 17-yard touchdown pass. Maranatha’s defense came up big when Awan Parker intercepted a pass and returned the ball to the Fillmore 34. On the first play, Peterson threw a deep ball into the end zone intended for Enrique Garza, the ball went off Garza but bounced high and Ortlund caught it in the end zone for the touchdown.

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Maranatha edged ahead on a little trickery. Peterson handed the ball off to Enrique Garza, who ran in the backfield before firing off a pass into the end zone to Parker for a 12-yard touchdown pass.

Maranatha wrapped up the game in the fourth quarter. Parker scored on a 9-yard touchdown run and caught a 31-yard touchdown pass.

“We had some simple mistakes we were making, but it's fixable stuff,” Cole said. “We have to go into next week and fix those mistakes.”